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MARTA details cause of chaos after football championship

Mechanical problems caused delays and crowd control problems at MARTA's Five Points Station after Monday night's college football national championship.

Inadequate staffing, poor communication and ineffective crowd control led to chaos at MARTA’s Five Points Station after the college football national championship last month, the agency’s top executives said Thursday.

Far fewer employees showed up to work than expected, the executives told the MARTA Board. The staff that did show up wasn’t enough to stop crowds from pressing up against trains and triggering doors to open automatically, which prevented trains from leaving the station. Poor communication between different stations prevented MARTA from stemming the tide of passengers that kept flowing into Five Points, even though some trains were stuck there.

Chief Operating Officer Rich Krisak told board members the agency already is taking steps to prevent a repeat when Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl next February.